Common Qualities Linked to Resiliency in Victims

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- People who live through an extreme traumatic
experience such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks or an airplane crash
often have the capacity to bounce back or even grow to a higher
level of functioning and personal strength, according to a
University at Buffalo researcher and expert in the effects of
horrifying trauma.

And at the heart of these extensive findings is a surprisingly
optimistic conclusion: Most people recover well following
devastating events, and even among those who struggle with the
experience, many of them can find some benefit from the experience,
despite the negative effects of the event in their lives.

"Even when people go through a horrible life-threatening event,
or endure huge losses and very difficult circumstances, many of
them actually find some positive aspects to the experience and are
able to grow from it." says Lisa D. Butler, associate professor in
UB's School of Social Work, whose multiple studies on the trauma
following 9/11 and other severely disruptive life events have been
published in numerous professional journals, including the April
issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

"That does not negate the pain of what they have been through or
the lingering effects in their lives, by any means," Butler says.
"But there is room for some positive changes as well."

Butler has been instrumental in research that concluded there
were a number of qualities associated with people who were
resilient in the face of devastating events beyond their control.
She also found that others reported positive changes in their lives
from living through such ordeals.

Butler's research has found that the qualities that are common
to people who are the most resilient include:

Less emotional control. Those able to recover well shared
a willingness to express sadness or pain in a reasonable way. Those
who tamped their emotions down inside were less able to get beyond
the toxic effects of their tragedy.

Less catastrophic views of the world. Those who avoided
interpreting the tragedy as confirmation of a bleak and unforgiving
world were less distressed in the both immediate and longer term by
the experience.

Social support, both personal and within a community.
Those enduring these devastating losses with a network of people
supportive to their needs were more apt to survive their grief and
find hidden reserves. The survivors who were able to turn to these
interpersonal resources were also those more able to discuss their
psychological pain in an open manner.

Less media exposure. Those who watched repeated images of
the same monstrous calamity over time, such as the World Trade
Center attacks, tended to have higher feelings of distress than
those who watched fewer.

"When we put these factors in an equation to examine how well
they predict levels of distress, we find that together they are
very good predictors of whether a person recovers," says Butler.
"But we also find that the strongest factor seems to be whether the
person developed a negative world view -- if they did, then it
appeared to undermine the person's ability to overcome the
traumatic event." For example, in one of Butler's studies,
participants were asked whether a series of negative and
pessimistic beliefs about the world ("My life has no meaning" or "I
don't look forward to the future anymore") applied to them. And
those who reported a significantly more pessimistic world outlook
also experienced higher levels of what the researchers called
"distress."

As well, even among people who were the most highly distressed
right after the event, those who found positive aspects to the
experience were often able to grow from it over time, according to
Butler.

"This kind of an event often opens up possibilities for people
to improve their relationships with others, for example," says
Butler. "They may also come to realize they are stronger than they
realized or they feel an enhanced appreciation for life. And in
some cases they may became more spiritual.

"In my view, looking at resilience and growth following
something as shattering as 9/11 is, in a way, positive psychology
meeting trauma psychology. It's a way of finding something good in
what happened."

Butler joined the UB faculty in January, after doing her
research at Stanford University's School of Medicine. She was hired
at UB to strengthen the university's research focus on "extreme
events" as part of the UB 2020 strategic planning initiative.

She is currently studying the effects of people enduring the
threat of living in fear.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public
university, a flagship institution in the State University of New
York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's
more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through
more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree
programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of
the Association of American Universities.